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Zachary Quinto identifies himself 'as a gay man'

Zachary Quinto hasn't typically been one to get too personal — unless you count a new interview in which he just-in-passing refers to himself as a gay man, directly, publicly, for the first time.

The "Heroes" and "Star Trek" star casually dropped the detail while promoting his upcoming film "Margin Call," a thriller that revolves around a handful of investment bankers, one of them played by Quinto, during the first 24 hours of the U.S. financial meltdown.

Along the way, assessing his recent eight-month turn in "Angels in America" in an interview with New York magazine, Quinto said that the Broadway role had made him realize how lucky he was to have been born in 1977 — too late to have witnessed the AIDS crisis' "decimation of an entire generation of amazingly talented and otherwise vital men" in the mid-'80s, when that play takes place.

"And at the same time, as a gay man, it made me feel like there's still so much work to be done, and there's still so many things that need to be looked at and addressed," said the new incarnation of Mr. Spock.

[Updated, 6:15 p.m. Oct. 16: In addition to the New York magazine interview that was publicized Saturday, Quinto on Sunday posted a message on his personal blog, saying that the suicide of bullied gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer spurred him to go public about his sexuality. "In light of jamey's death — it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it — is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality," he wrote. Jamey Rodemeyer is the teen Lady Gaga referenced while addressing President Obama at a fund-raiser last month in Northern California.]

So — that's that.

Keep in mind, this comes less than a year after Quinto shut down a conversation with that very same magazine after deeming certain of its reporter's questions too personal. Probing questions along the lines of, oh, "What's your favorite ice cream flavor?" Yes, really.